Family mourns man shot and killed by moped driver in Boston, no arrests made
BOSTON - The family of a Boston man is looking for answers after he was gunned down near the Forest Hills MBTA stop by a shooter police say was on a moped. "I lost a friend, I lost a brother, a really good guy," said Francis Gonzalez of his 35-year-old friend Andy Baez Manan also known as Jusepy.
On Thursday, family and friends gathered at a funeral home in Dorchester wearing a T-shirt that memorializes him and the number he wore on his softball team. They say they're still trying to understand what happened the night of July 14.
"We just need justice for him and his family. This is not something that nobody expected, it's out of the blue," said friend Elsa Gonzalez.
Surrounded by mopeds before shooting
Jusepy had played a softball game that Sunday afternoon as he does every week. As he then drove home from dinner with his wife and two children, friends say he was surrounded by at least three mopeds. "They were doing wheelies around his car, kind of intimidating him. He's beeping his horn to avoid hitting them," said friend Sujey Oller.
At a red light on the Arborway in Jamaica Plain, he made the fateful decision to get out of the car. "He put the car in park, he got out and said 'Hey, what's going on'. One guy just turned and shot him in front his kids, his wife," said Oller.
Friends say Jusepy was a devoted father who was up early every morning to work at a cleaning company, but that night he became the victim of a senseless crime. "You take a gun out and shoot someone in the chest, you're a criminal," said Francis Gonzalez.
Crime associated with mopeds and other off-road vehicles is on the radar of Boston police, who've been confiscating them in a crackdown. These friends hope more can be done. "Some guys around that particular hour, 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night with a hoodie and face mask on, you don't know who's who," said Francis Gonzalez.
"Boston is the Wild West"
It's an issue that also has the attention of Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn. "I believe Boston is the Wild West out there. An anything goes attitude is taking place on the streets and the sidewalks and that has to stop," said Flynn.
As friends and family buried Jusepy, Victor Santos said the community was out in force for him. "We all care about him, those are the only words I have," Santos said.
The shooting remains under investigation and so far, no arrests have been made.